Boys Go to Jupiter Is A Delightful Hidden Gem of Indie Animation
If you love cute singing aliens, this is for you.
Billy’s (Jack Corbett) friends are upset with him. Their days of slacking, shoplifting, and generally causing trouble around their sleepy Florida town have taken on a sour note after their de facto leader turned 16 and decided that he needed to do anything to make money. Despite their pleas to join them on their latest bout of mischief, Billy is only focused on hustling as a “Grubster” driver so he can earn $5000 and move out of his sister’s garage. This kind of sweet, wholesome premise provides the basis for many a solid coming-of-age movie, but Boys Go to Jupiter sets itself apart with its stunning, video game-like pastel visuals, and its surreal introduction of singing aliens.
Written, directed, and produced by Julian Glander, in his feature directorial debut, Boys Go to Jupiter is a whimsical late-summer gem of indie animation. Made by the self-taught 3D artist over 90 days with the open-source 3D modeling program Blender, Boys Go to Jupiter was inspired by Glander’s nostalgia for growing up in the suburbs, coupled with Google Street View coverage of Tampa, Florida. It turns the film into a curious intersection between a high-tech digital world and a charmingly lo-fi story about friendship and that strange period between adolescence and adulthood.
Little of what happens in Boys Go to Jupiter can be summed up in a neat plot synopsis. Rather, the film plays out through charming vignettes, in which Billy makes Grubster deliveries across the Florida suburb where he grew up. It’s a small one full of funky idiosyncrasies: one restaurant, for example, is in the shape of a giant hot dog and purports to sell the “world’s largest hot dog,” though the lone cashier complains that customers prefer regular-sized dogs. Another delivery location is the house of an old woman whose address frequently gets wrong deliveries.
But one particular delivery location changes the course of Billy’s life: a high-security lab where scientists work carefully to craft the perfect fruit juices, and where Billy accidentally acquires a cute alien blob. The little alien, which Billy calls Donut for its love of eating donuts (and the boxes they come in), is a sweet and guileless creature that gets itself, and Billy, into all sorts of trouble. Even more troubling, it seems to be the target of the powerful juice company, which wants to harvest its special abilities to make a best-selling juice.
But Boys Go to Jupiter doesn’t content itself with solely being a “boy and his alien” story, though that becomes the film’s endearing, emotional backbone. Instead, it lazily ambles through its narrative, perfectly capturing that aimless feeling of summer in the suburbs (it technically takes place in the winter, but it’s Florida). We spend ample time with Billy’s friends, who loiter around liquor stores and gas stations, or pull pranks on each other by the empty swimming pool. And the movie is interrupted by short segments from another alien, which sends transmissions about its favorite things on Earth via little musical numbers (a jingle about sodas is particularly catchy).
The giant hot dog in the flesh.
Watching Boys Go to Jupiter is like watching a candy-induced dream: somewhat strange and nonsensical, but vibrant and full of unearthly colors and shapes. The soft 3D-rendered figures of Billy and his friends look like tiny toys brought to life, while the shapeless renderings of other characters make the film feel half-remembered and strange. And the cute, amorphous alien blobs make for the most wonderful visuals — so simple, but so effective. The monotonous performances of the voice actors (which include a handful of rising actors and comedians like Elsie Fisher, Julio Torres, Sarah Sherman, Cole Escola, Eva Victor, and Demi Adejuyigbe) sometimes tip into twee, but that’s easily forgiven.
Boys Go to Jupiter is a delightful indie triumph. Its pleasantly pliable animation goes down easy, as does its charmingly lo-fi story of coming-of-age in a world of apps and aliens. It’s the sweetest surprise of the summer, and one you don’t want to miss.
